A surprising choice

It seems the most common reaction to Dean Fred Hargadon's selection as baccalaureate speaker is a combination of surprise and puzzlement. The opinion board shares this sense, for three reasons.

First, the usual glow dimmed a bit this summer, when it emerged that Hargadon permitted his staff to use the social security numbers of high-profile Princeton applicants in an unannounced test of Yale's admissions web site. This may have been within legal bounds, but it breached the boundaries of propriety and trust that applicants rightly expect admissions offices to observe when dealing with personal data. The incident left a cloud over Hargadon, and many seniors do not want it casting a shadow on their baccalaureate.

Second, Hargadon's ruminations on life and college — the grist of any baccalaureate address — are already well known to students. He shares them at orientation every year, and writes them in an annual letter to applicants. It's hard to imagine that he will be left with anything new to say in June.

Third, seniors played too minor a role in choosing him. The selection committee had as many faculty and administrators as it did students (four of each), and President Tilghman made the final choice. As with last year's selection of trustee and major donor Meg Whitman '77, rewarding the speaker's long service to Princeton seems at least as important a reason for the choice as anything he might say to the senior class.

Dean Fred has done a hard job well for many years. Most undergraduates feel a debt of gratitude to the admissions office — and that office, as an institution, is inseparable from Hargadon's personal presence. We sometimes even slip into a sort of Hargadon hagiography, eager to idealize the man who so wisely chose us.

Nonetheless he was not the best possible choice for baccalaureate speaker. — The Daily Princetonian Opinion Board

Dissent: Hargadon deserves admiration

I believe the selection of Dean Hargadon as baccalaureate speaker is a good and thoughtful one. It seems fitting that the man who greeted this year's seniors at matriculation send them out the University gates, and it will allow a campus hero to give one last piece of advice before he retires.

Hargadon had no hand in last summer's admissions wrongdoing, and should not be punished for the unethical actions of others.

The speech Hargadon will give in June will likely be the last address he makes as admissions dean, and is thus different from any he has given. With the pressures of his office removed, and the opportunity to give seniors lasting advice for the rest of their lives instead of for the next four years, I'm sure he will give a fresh perspective. It is insulting to suggest he is incapable of saying something new.

The assertion that not all seniors want the speaker chosen for their baccalaureate is a tired one that has emerged repeatedly over the years — members of the Class of 2002 said the same of Meg Whitman. If the graduating class thinks the senior representation currently involved in the selection process insufficient, the time to reform the process was at the beginning of the year, not now that the decision has been made.

Dean Fred has done an immensely difficult job well for many years, and he deserves more respect and admiration than students are giving him. — Molly Gulland Managing Editor